we will see then

Eh that is debatable, is Grand Tourismo a notoriously good seller in Japan, plus Square might be, if this is the case to be more open to not make the next FF excl in Japan. Plus by the time it is released we will be in the next generation no doubt so it doesn't really come into this current battle.

Going by the trend the next xbox might be more popular in Japan, MS seems to know what it needs to get more popular in certain regions and congrats to them, the ps3 is a major difference from being the weakest (spec wise) to between the most powerful (spec wise).

Sales were obviously going to suffer because the price would also definitely have to go higher in accordance with what items you are using for the console.

This is all just my opinion though.

@ aussie, GT is the big seller in Europe, the main thing in Japan in Final Fantasy, the sales flew up even with the launch of FF VII AC with the demo

Yeah i agree with FF is HUGE in Japan, but by the time the next generation comes out Xbox could be just as popular as the next ps.. going by the trend PS4.

Thus Square would be crazy to make it excl in Japan, as they are not the providers on Sony's sales. If for example there was 20 million xbox and 1 ps in for example Japan, and they had been out the same time, would you still think that it would be clever for Square to make FF excl in Japan even if it was 4 mill all at the same time, it would make Square lose sales which it would otherwise gain.

You can use Gears as an argument for otherwise, but i get the impression that sales was the deciding factor for PS3 excl in Japan, they even said that they wanted to sell in Europe and America for the xbox so they wouldnt miss the... opportunites for no doubt more sales.

Personally, I have difficulty imagining that there are that many people who think that $400 makes the PS3 not worth considering who will be highly motivated to pay $300 for one ...

This doesn't mean there won't be a large initial boost in sales (after all, for 12 months people have been holding off buying a PS3 because they expected a price drop) or that there won't be a sustained increase (because people who were considering both an XBox 360 and a PS3 may be more likely to buy a PS3) but I highly doubt this price reduction would be a game changer. To make matters worse, if Microsoft and/or Nintendo reduce the price of their consoles and/or create bundles the proportional improvement of the PS3 because of its price reduction could be minimized to the extent that it is hardly noticeable.

Every (full) GT game is a million seller in Japan, and a couple are double million sellers.

Not as big as Final Fantasy, but pretty huge.

There is no chance of that happening. Despite launching a year later than the Xbox, and at a much higher price, and not having any jRPGs apart from WKC, the PS3 is 3:1 up, and that gap will get even large with FF XIII and GT 5, M$ are not doing a great job closing the gap. They have made the console sell a tiny bit in Japan, but I doub tthe investment was worth it. The Xbox version of the game will sell nearly nothing in Japan compared to the PS3 version, and I am sure Sony are willing to make up some of the difference. Anyway, it is in SE's interest to boost PS3 sales in Japan, they will want a larger user base in future when they bring across the Last Remnant and Star Ocean, and then any future PS360 are going to have the majority of their sales on PS3, and of course they want to expand the market for when the PS3 exclusives Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Kingdom Hearst 3 come to the platform.

In terms of foreign sales, well SE have been shooting themselves in the foot by releasing IU, TLR and SO4 only on Xbox, when the potential playstation jRPG market is much greater as the brand has always been associated with jRPGs ever since Final Fantasy VII

A $299 PS3, let alone a Slim $299 PS3, will absolutely destroy even a $149 arcade in sales.

The demand is absolutely there for PS3, people love Playstation. The only reason they don't buy them is because 360 is only $199 (even though it has like no features) and the Wii is $249 and "I saw the wii on Oprah the other day, so it must be good".

"question what happens when, if at $299 the ps3 barely outsells the 360 "

"Only in it's 4th year of the 10 year plan, i wouldn't count PS3 out for 6 more years"

will probably be the typical damage control.

$400 PS3 outsold $350 Xbox. $300 PS3 will destroy $300 Xbox